1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to methods and apparatus for neighbor discovery of base stations in a communication system, and more particularly to an automated neighbor discovery by a base station with the assistance of an access terminal.
2. Background
In communication systems, such as wireless communication systems, base stations serving communication content may maintain data concerning neighboring base stations within the communication system. Neighboring base stations are those base stations geographically situated relative to a particular base station that represent viable candidates to which to a mobile communication device being currently served by the particular base station might handed off to as the mobile communication changes location.
In certain wireless communication systems, such those employing Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) technology or LTE (Long Term Evolution technology) having an Evolved Packet System (EPS), the communication network linking the base stations may be used by the base stations to communicate respective information to other base stations in the network (e.g., evolved base stations (eBS) in a converged access network, such as a radio area network (RAN), connected via an access gateway (AGW)). Additionally in such systems, when an access terminal (AT) undergoes a handoff from one base station to another, the AT will report neighboring base station information (e.g., a Pilot ID) at the time of handoff, which saves overhead resources. Normally if the network neighboring base station is known to the base station handing off, the identifying information is sufficient for handing off within the network. However, whenever a new base station is added or removed from the RAN, these conventional systems require an operator to manually reconfigure all of the affected base stations, which becomes particularly burdensome, making acquisition expensive, and is less homogeneous, especially if temporary base stations are used within a network.